Transcriber listening device



June 26, 1951' R. L. STONE ET AL TRANSCRIBER LISTENING DEVICE 2 Sheets-s 1 E s a N I a A. N m N R R I. wk m INC 5 m1... M

4 m y 7 B I\ DR T RFB MZ H R. L. STONE ET AL TRANSCRIBER LISTENING DEVICE June 26, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 9, 1946 INVENTORS ROBERT L. s-rom-z wan 2. RUNGE ATTO R N EY Patented June 26, 1951 TRANSCRIBER LISTENING DEVICE Robert L. Stone, Guilford, and Frank E. Runge, Branford, Conn, assignors to The Soundscriber Corporation, New Haven, Conn, a corporation of Connecticut Application May 9, 1946, Serial No. 668,418

1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to dictating machines, and more particularly to a listening device connected to a. sound reproducer and adapted to be located adjacent, the ear of a transcribing typist;

One object of the present invention is to provide a listening device of the above nature mounted upon. a supporting. stand and including a short horn or softspeaker having interior reflecting passages shaped to permit directional transmission of'the sound to the operators ear and to shield noises from the surrounding room;

A further object is to provide a device of the above nature which will give a pleasing and intelligible reproduction and will be cushioned to avoid the possibility of injuring the operators head.

A further object is to provide a device of the above nature which will be simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to install, adjust, and manipulate, compact, ornamental in appearance, and very efficient and durable in use.

With these and other objects in view, there have been illustrated on the accompanying drawing two forms in which the invention may conveniently be embodied in practice.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of the transscriber listening device as it appears when assembled for use on a table.

Fig. 2 is an end view of the sound emitting horn.

Fig. 3 is a longitudinal sectional View, taken along the line 33 of Fig. 2, looking in the di rection of the arrows.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of a portion of the rear casing and the sound-emitting horn taken at the joint therebetween.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view of the forward'part of the horn and showing portions of the central flared neck and the interior reflector.

Fig. 6 is a side elevation of the transcriber listening device as it appears when assembled for use on the floor.

Fig. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of the supporting base and the friction joint between the base and the horn-supporting post.

Fig.- 8' is a transverse sectional view of the same,- taken along theline 8-8 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional view of a modified form of base joint for connecting it to the'horn-supporting post.

The present invention relates more particularly to a short listening softspeaker horn which may be located close to a typists ear without necessarily touching her head, thus eliminating the use of a headphone which might be uncomfortable and inconvenient to use.

With former softspeaker devices of this character, it was necessary to locate the soundemitting device quite close to the typists head in order to make the transcription audible to her without being audible to other persons in the room. However, owing to the fear of injury by sudden contact with the equipment, the typist frequently would keep her ear too far away from the apparatus for the most effective reproduction.

The present invention includes a small receiver unit located within the interior of a soft rubber horn having directional characteristics so that it may be heard by the operator at a considerable distance. It will thus usually be unnecessary to locate the horn close to the listeners ear, thereby avoiding the possibility of injury to the operator or overturning the listening device in case of sudden turning motions of her head. If desired, however, the orifice of the soft cushioned rubber horn may actually engage the users ear with a cupping action when the typist is listening in very noisy locations, thus excluding outside noises.

The improved transcriber horn herein disclosed has an interior small-diaphragm type receiver unit which is designed to give excellent response to sounds of high frequencies. Moreover, with respect to its length, the horn has a relatively long interior passageway, the cross section of which expands at an approximately exponential rate. This construction permits the horn to respond well to sounds of low frequencies, and this fact coupled with the use of soft rubber effectively avoids shrillness in the reproduction. Some loss of high frequency sounds will be caused by the yieldable nature of the walls of the horn, which is desirable in order to dampen any resonance effects of the horn and receiver unit.

The present invention is also equipped with a substantial heavy table-base connected to the horn-supporting post by a friction joint, which permits the position of the horn to be readily adjusted as desired to direct the beam of the sound to the typists ear.

The present invention also provides means whereby the sound horn may be supported upon a floor stand, a portion of which may be removed to convert it into a table stand.

The present invention, if desired, may also be used as a directional microphone, in which case the high pitched components of the sound waves will be dampened by the yieldable walls of the device.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like reference numerals denote corresponding parts throughout the several views, the numeral If! indicates a hollow base adapted to rest upon a table, desk or other support. The base 16 has a plurality of depending cylindrical rubber feet I l which serve to prevent scratching of the supporting surface.

In order to connect the receiver unit 38 of the horn H of the listening device to a transcriber i amplifying apparatus, not shown, provision is made of a two-wire cord 12 passing into the base It! through a double flanged grommet I3.

The base is is provided with a raised upper section I4 below which is a depending interior neck I5 having an open vertical slot Ilia formed therein. Provision is also made of a hollow upstanding post it passing through the neck l5 and secured in operating position within said neck by means of a lock nut I! located on a reduced lower end it of said neck l5. The post i6 is adapted to be journaled in a bushing sleeve is located in the neck as clearly shown in Figs. '7 and 8. This sleeve facilitates rapid changing of the device from a floor stand to a table stand and vice versa.

In order to hold the listening device from accidental rotation during use, provision is made of a horizontal lock screw passing through the bushing sleeve l9 and the hollow post 16, and located in the slot 15a of the neck i5.

The hollow post it is provided with a shoulder 2! which seats upon the raised upper boss 14 of the base it, and said post It has an interior vertical passage 22 for receiving the cord I2 which extends up through the friction joint J and an upper hollow supporting post 3| leading to the sound-emitting horn H.

The post [6 is provided at its lower end with an upstanding fork having opposed side sections 23, 24. The side section 24 supports a hollow horizontal screw shell 25, while the side section 23 supports a horizontal headed screw 26 which fits into said shell 25.

The friction joint J also includes an upper I collar member 27 having a sleeve 28 surrounding the hollow shell 25, as clearly shown in Fig. 8. The collar member 2'! has a pair of arcuate segments 29, 30, which are provided with stop shoulders 36a, 33?), respectively, for engaging with stop shoulders 36c and 30d upstanding from the half 24 of the friction joint J.

The hollow post 3! extends upwardly from the upper collar 2'! and is straight at its lower portion and provided with an inclined upper end 32 which'is adapted to fit within a recess 33 in a hollow rear casing 34 of the molded rubber listening horn H. The forward portion of the recess 33 is provided with an aperture 35 having rounded edges which are adapted to fit tightly over the conductor cord l2 which passes into the rear casing 34. The rear casing 34 is also provided with an enlarged cylindrical central cavity 34a. having a rounded rear section 31. The casing 34 also has a forward annular external groove 36.

Located within the cavity 34a of the casing 34 is a small receiver unit 38 having suitable binding posts 39 for connection with a pair of iii-- sulated wires 40, 4| included in the cord l2.

s The receiver unit 38 is provided with an enlarged forward collar section 42, and a still further enlarged thin front flange 43 which is adapted to rest upon a reduced forward portion 44 of the rear casing 34.

A diaphragm 44a on the front of the receiver unit 38 is located in an air chamber 44b which communicates with a small opening 440 at the rear end of a central flared tube 44:1 in an elliptical horn casing 45, as clearly shown in Fig. 3, and preferably made of more yieldable material than the rear casing 34, such as soft rubber or an elastomeric" composition. The horn casing 45 has a rounded interior annular cavity 46, and is provided with a rear interior groove 46a for fitting about the front rim 44 of the rear casing 34, as clearly shown in the drawing.

In order to securely connect the rear casing 34 to the softer front horn casing 45, provision is made of a flat metallic outer band 4'! which is seated in recesses in the outer surfaces of said casings 34 and 45.

For rearwardly reflecting the sound emitted by the flared central tube 44d, provision is made i of a cup-shaped member 48 having a rounded interior central cone 49 surrounding which is a rounded annular recess 51) having three metallic fln members 51 provided with shoulders am for receiving the forward large end of the flared hollow neck 44d (see Fig. 5).

Provision is also made of four rear metallic spacer fins 52 having forward edge slots 53 to receive the rear end of the reflector 48.

Modified form In the modified form of the invention shown in Fig. 9, provision is made of a hollow floor base 54 having rubber scratch-proof feet H and a two-wire electric cable [2 passing through agrommet I 3 into said base 54. The base 54 is provided with a raised upper boss 55 below which is a depending tapped neck 56 for receiving the threaded lower end of an upstanding pipe member 57 which is held in place by means of lock nuts 58, 59 located above and below the neck section 56.

Operation In the operation of the present invention, the hollow supporting post 3! will first be adjusted by bending the friction joint J to the desired angle depending upon the location of the listeners head.

The friction joint J may then be further tightened, if required, by means of the screw 26 for holding said friction joint securely in adjusted position.

When the soundreproducer (not shown) is in operation, the receiver unit will emit sound Vibrations which will pass into the air chamber 442), through the aperture 440 and the flared neck 44d and be reversely bent by the cone 49 of the reverse reflector 45. The sound will be reflected forwardly by the curved annular cavity 46 in the rear of the casing 45. By the use of a horn having an exponential expansion of the cross sectional area, an eiflcient acoustic amplification of the sound will be obtained and the beam of sound emitted from the horn will be directional.

When it is desired to mount the listening device on the floor, the table base 10 will be removed and the straight post 5? placed around the bottom post it of the friction joint J. The floor base 54 will then be attached to the lower end of the pipe 5'! and secured in place tightly by means of nuts 58, 59, the sleeve l9 not being used.

It will be understood that when the device is used as a microphone, the operation will be substantially the reverse of that herein described the sound waves travelling inwardly instead of outwardly. Moreover, in this case the microphone may be directed to any desired source of sounds and unwanted extraneous noises will be eliminated by the directional effect of the device.

While there have been disclosed in this specification two forms in which the invention may be embodied, it is to be understood that these forms are shown for the purpose of illustration only, and that the invention may be modified and embodied in various other forms without departing from its spirit. In short, the invention includes all the modifications and embodiments coming within the scope of the following claim.

Having thus fully described the invention, what is claimed as new, and for which it is desired to secure Letters Patent, is:

In a transcriber listening device, a horn having an elongated hollow forward section, means to support said horn close to the ear of a typist or other listener, said horn having a receiver unit provided with means for electrical connection to the amplifier of a sound reproducer, a central tube located within said forward section and formed integral therewith and having its rear end located in front of said receiver unit, said forward section having a first rounded annular cavity surrounding said rear end of said tube, a cup-shaped, rearwardly flared, reverse reflector in said forward section and coaxially surrounding said tube, said reverse reflector having in its base a rearwardly extending conical section forming a second rounded annular cavity, and means to centralize and connect said cup-shaped reflector to said horn comprising a plurality of slotted, longitudinally disposed fins seated in said first rounded annular cavity, the rear edge of said cup-shaped reflector being engaged within the slots of said slotted fins, and a plurality of substantially L-shaped longitudinally disposed fins seated in said second rounded annular cavity, the front edges and outer periphery of said central tube being engaged by the inner edges of said L-shaped fins.

ROBERT L. STONE.

FRANK E. RUNGE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 456,301 Edison July 21, 1891 1,137,187 Comer Apr. 27, 1915 1,272,843 Pape July 16, 1918 1,765,486 Hawley June 24, 1930- 2,146,325 Allison Feb. 7, 1939 2,161,995 Cahill June 13, 1939 2,194,070 Giannini Mar. 19, 1940 

